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Mark Levinson No. 36 DAC & High Resolution Files

Hi

Still have a Mark Levinson No. 36 DAC which is sounding very good in spite of its age - it actually sounds more analogue and warmer than the DACs of today.

I have been outputting FLAC's from a Squeezebox Duet to it via the BNC input on the 36 and it has been playing fine. Recently, I have been thinking of buying higher resolution files. The 36 only goes up to 24/48. Would higher resolution files work on it and how would they sound? I presume they would be downsampled to or only play at 24/48.

Thanks
mikey8811

Showing 3 responses by rockitman

rockitman's avatar
rockitman
417 posts
 
05-20-11: Sgr
You might look into PS Audios Perfect Wave DAC it will decode any high rez files, and I replaced my Levinson 30.6 DAC with it and never looked back.

I replaced my No. 36 with The PS Audio Perfect wav dac and trans. I feel the same way as Sgr...
rockitman's avatar
rockitman
417 posts
 
I own the No. 36 too as my old standy dac. I am 99.9% sure it will not resolve anything over 20 bit, 48kHz. Any higher resolution files will be truncated abrubtly and I would expect to not sound very good.

From the manual:
All digital filtering and processing maintains a true 24-bit throughput capability,
providing greater digital resolution than any existing source component. Even the
most stringent requirements of professionals can easily be met with this design.

In addition to true 20-bit capability (24 bits in the digital domain, filtered to the
20-bit resolution of the digital to analog conversion stages)...
rockitman's avatar
rockitman
417 posts
 
Mark Levinson isn't what it used to be...Bring back Madrigal Labs !
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